No offense to modern horror movie directors, but when it comes to pioneering straight-up ickiness, anatomists and biological sculptors from the late 1600s to mid-1800s had today's fright-masters beat by centuries.

Indeed, the inability to preserve corpses properly saw many students of the human body turning to intricate wax anatomical models that eerily mirrored organs, bones, and other sundry viscera. As you will see below, these models ranged from grotesque to goofy to gorgeous.

And like any Z-grade horror auteur worth his salt, these wax modelers often added a smidge of titillation in the form of the "anatomical Venus," a specific kind of sculpture that depicted a beautiful woman in repose, organs splayed out willy-go-nilly. But the anatomical Venuses didn't always come across as deceased.

The achievement of having originated the creation of anatomical models in coloured wax must be ascribed to a joint effort undertaken by the Sicilian wax modeller Gaetano Giulio Zumbo and the French surgeon Guillaume Desnoues in the late 17th century. Interest in anatomical wax models spread throughout Europe during the 18th century, first in Bologna with Ercole Lelli, Giovanni Manzolini and Anna Morandi, and then in Florence with Felice Fontana and Clemente Susini. In England, the art of anatomical ceroplastics was brought to London from Florence by the sculptor Joseph Towne. Throughout the centuries many anatomical artists preferred this material due to the remarkable mimetic likeness obtained, far surpassing any other material [...]

During the 19th century the dissected anatomical statues of reclining women came to be known as ‘Venuses', referring to the Venus de Medici created by an unknown Greek sculptor at the beginning of the 3rd century BC and on show today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The generic term ‘Venus' was later applied to any idealized female figure including those produced by prehistoric sculptors [...]

In certain cases the scientific purposes of the anatomical waxes were just an excuse for depicting a beautiful, sensual dying woman. One of the most famous examples kept in ‘La Specola' is undoubtedly the Medici Venus. This sculpture was reproduced in different sizes and postures and there are numerous copies in Italy and other countries (Bologna, Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona). The name itself plays with the ambiguity of Venus of Medici, the most famous ancient work kept in Florence at the time of the Medici family, and medici being the Italian for medical doctors.

This model, probably from Florence, Italy, was used in the study of anatomy, and shows the body's vital organs. The figure is made of bees-wax and hair, and is shown with its detachable front opened to reveal removable internal organs.